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A 17-year-old North Hollywood girl who died after being shot and abandoned at a local hospital last month was suspected of participating in a botched car burglary, investigators said Friday.

The new information comes a day after officials announced that two men suspected in the death of Darlene Robles were arrested and charged with her murder and second-degree burglary of a vehicle.

Michael Gonzalez, 24, of North Hollywood, was arrested April 16 at 11:30 a.m. at his home, according to Det. Robert Bub of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Van Nuys Division.

Alejandro Aguirre, 26, of Sun Valley, was arrested April 26 when he appeared in court in Lancaster on an unrelated charge, Bub said.

Both men pleaded not guilty to murder and second-degree burglary of a vehicle and are due back in court on May 25 for preliminary hearing setting.

Police were originally looking for three suspects who were caught on surveillance footage on April 6 at Kaiser Permanente hospital in Panorama City, where they left Robles in the emergency room. She later died of a gunshot wound.

In the footage, an SUV pulls up to a hospital entrance and drives away as a man and woman push Robles into the emergency room in a wheelchair.

Aguirre, the suspected gunman, is believed to have driven the SUV to the hospital, where he got out pushed Robles into the ER. Gonzalez is believed to have driven the SUV away, Bub said.

Robles was shot in Sherman Oaks, according to the coroner’s office.

Robles, Gonzalez and Aguirre, along with the unidentified woman, were trying to steal a car when the car’s owner confronted them, Bub said. It was unclear if Aguirre allegedly fired a warning shot or intended to hit the burglary victim, but the shot struck Robles, Bub said.

Investigators do not have enough evidence to put together a case against the woman, but the investigation is ongoing, Bub said.

Alexander Brooks is seen in a recent photo on his computer monitor that sits with his recording equipment in his room. Brooks,19, was killed in a hit-and-run accident Monday night just around the corner from his home. Brooks was interested in producing hip-hop music and often recorded his friends in his bedroom that has a makeshift studio in a hallway leading to a rooftop deck. | See photo gallery. (John McCoy/Staff Photographer)

MISSION HILLS — Alexander J. Brooks wanted to be an organ donor.

A year ago, the then-18-year-old Mission Hills resident told his fraternal twin brother: If I’m gone and I can’t use my organs, I’d rather somebody be able to use them.

That was the kind of young man that Brooks was developing into, his family said, before he was killed by a hit-and-run driver Monday in Mission Hills.

Brooks, 19, was pronounced dead at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center after he was struck while crossing the street around the corner from his own home.

And in the end, his wish to become an organ donor could not be fulfilled.

Forty minutes after Brooks died at the hospital, his family gave permission for his organs to be harvested. Several hours later, they learned that police were not allowing the operation, citing an ongoing investigation.

The opportunity for the James Monroe High School grad to be a donor had passed.

It was disappointing, his family members said.

“But it certainly speaks to the type of person he is – was – and his gentleness,” said Olivia Walker, Brooks’ grandmother. “He was an amazing young man.”

Brooks, who was studying business at Los Angeles Mission College in Sylmar, was crossing the street at an unmarked crosswalk at Langdon Avenue and Lassen Street at about 10 p.m. He was heading home after visiting a friend with whom he recorded hip-hop music.

Brooks was almost there – the condo that he shared with his mother and two brothers was just around the corner.

Then, a driver headed west on Lassen struck Brooks so hard that the pedestrian was propelled 50 feet into oncoming traffic, where he was struck again by another vehicle. The first driver took off. The second driver stopped and called police.

Neighbors, who reported hearing a loud crash, could only describe the vehicle as a black sedan, with possibly some front-end damage from the impact.

His death was at least the third hit-and-run fatality reported this year in the San Fernando Valley, according to Officer Karen Rayner of the Los Angeles Police Department. As of last week, there had been 1,968 hit-and-runs in the Valley since January, down 15 percent from the same period last year.

Brooks, who family members called “Allie,” and “momma’s boy,” was an aspiring hip-hop artist who had spent the last summer living in a recording studio producing tracks in Northern California. He was self taught in piano, drums and guitar and learned through trial-and-error how to connect mixers and synthesizers to the computer.

He also converted a stairwell leading from his room to the rooftop into a recording studio measuring just two-feet by three-feet wide by plastering the walls with cardboard cupholders from McDonald’s, egg cartons and mattress pads. He’d charge $25 for each track he produced.

“He’d say, `I’ll make it work to my advantage’,” said his aunt, Shawn Johnson, adding that Brooks was even able to stylize the thick glasses he had to wear because of vision problems. “That was typical Allie.”

Friends often crowded eight to 10 deep as he laid out tracks in his room, surrounded by walls neatly covered with Brooks’ own graffiti-style drawings, magazine covers of hip-hop and rap artists, and a math achievement award from James Monroe high.

“Allie was such his own man that people gravitated towards him,” said Johnson.

“He trusted everybody,” Jones said. “He was just that open, just that big-hearted.”

Brooks had just completed his freshman year at L.A. Mission College and was about to start at the Musicians Institute College of Contemporary Music in Hollywood in the fall.

Although he hadn’t yet decided on a stage name – he sometimes used Yung Apaco, Soul Child, Allie Boy, AB2 – he had grabbed the attention of some music producers, such as those for rapper E-40. By last year, he had already produced and recorded his first song, “Never Fall,” for which he had also written the lyrics.

Following a piano intro, Brooks sings about being raised single-handedly by his mother, a talent agent, and his father, who he had just begun reconnecting with in the last year.

“Ya’ll ever wonder? If you were to have one parent in your life, possibly no parents in your life?” Brooks lamented. “Sometimes that happens. That one person you love may be gone.”

For Aaron Brooks, Alexander’s younger twin by 30 minutes, the feeling was all too fresh. He changed the screensaver on his phone to his twin’s picture, sometimes staring at the photo, shaking his head and then breaking down.

“I hurt so bad in my heart,” Aaron Brooks, who is deaf, wrote in texts and online. “I miss my brother. I lost my best friend.”

The family plans to start a musician’s scholarship in Brooks’ name.

“Helping someone, that was his heart,” Walker said. “That’s what Allie would have wanted.”

Anyone with more information is asked to call Valley Traffic Division detectives at 818-644-8020.

Anyone wishing to remain anonymous should call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS or text 274637. Tips leading to an arrest can earn up to $1,000.

Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office employees don’t feel safe at the morgue and say managers are not fair when it comes to issuing take-home vehicles and work assignments, according to an audit released Thursday.

The 132-page report, by Washington State-based firm Strategica Inc., found a host of management problems that, if not corrected, could result in autopsy backlogs, threaten the department’s accreditation and jeopardize law enforcement’s ability to investigate and prosecute homicide cold cases.

A female bank robber that authorities have dubbed the “Starlet Bandit” struck at two San Fernando Valley banks on Thursday, bringing her total number of heists to 10 since March, according to the FBI.

The woman approached a teller at Chase Bank in North Hills, 9154 Sepulveda Blvd., at 9:32 a.m. with a note that said: “Give me all you have, no dye packs,” said Laura Eimiller, FBI spokeswoman.

She also threatened to harm customers if the teller did not comply with the demands, Eimiller said.

A little more than an hour later, at 10:47 a.m., Eimiller said the same woman approached a teller at Citibank in Woodland Hills, 21945 Erwin St. with a note that read: “Put all the money from your drawer in the bag, no dye packs. Do not step away from the counter or I will harm customers. Thanks.”

The woman was described as “chunky” or “chubby,” in her late 20s or early 30s, with a light complexion and blonde hair worn up. She was also described as having a red ponytail with blonde highlights.

In surveillance footage released by Citibank, she was seen wearing her signature large black sunglasses. She was wearing an Ecko Unlimited brand T-shirt under a zippered hooded sweatshirt and carrying a cell phone and black purse.

The heists came just two days after the woman robbed a Citibank in Granada Hills, 16800 Devonshire, at 10:00a.m. Tuesday. A teller was passed a note that read similar to other robberies. No weapon seen, but the robber threatened to harm customers, Eimiller said.

The Starlet Bandit is now believed to be responsible for 10 robberies including banks in Van Nuys, Hollywood, Mission Hills and Palmdale. Of that number, eight occurred in the last 10 days.

Witnesses in previous robberies described the robber as a white female, between 5’5 to 5’7 tall and weighing between 140 and 170 pounds, according to the FBI.

She was seen wearing the black sunglasses, baseball cap, beige hooded sweater and jeans, and was carrying carrying a handbag and a cell phone with glitter or jewels on it.
She left the banks in a white Toyota Avalon with an unknown male driver, according to the FBI.

Anyone with information as to the whereabouts of the Starlet Bandit is urged to contact the FBI at 310-477-6565 or the LAPD at 1-877-LAPD-247.

Anyone wishing to remain anonymous should call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS or texting 274637. Tips leading to an arrest can earn up to $1,000.

Child homicides in Los Angeles County soared 31 percent and suicides jumped 70 percent from 2007 to 2008, a troubling trend that experts say may be a consequence of the economic downturn.

The annual report released today by the Inter-Agency Council on Child Abuse and Neglect said 34 children were killed by parents, relatives or caregivers in 2008, compared with 26 the previous year.

Suicides among local youths jumped from 10 to 17.

The ICAN study period coincided with the mortgage meltdown, leading to the collapse of the real-estate market and triggering a deep recession. Some experts suggested a link between money troubles and increased violence against children.

BY THE NUMBERS

34 Child homicides, L.A. County, 2008, up by 31 percent from the prior year

26 Child homicides, L.A. County, 2007

17 Child suicides, L.A. County, 2008, up by 70 percent from the prior year

Sheriffs responded to the area and found them hiding in a metal storage container. They were arrested without incident and additionally charged with escape from a custody facility, according to officials.

USC bomb threat came from psychiatric ward, police sources sayFrom the L.A. Times – A bomb threat at USC that shut down a part of campus turned out to be a hoax by a caller from the psychiatric ward at County-USC Hospital.

The caller had apparently reported various crimes earlier in the day, the sources said. He finally got the attention of authorities when he reported a “nuclear weapon” at the USC campus.

Wilson High students deny witness intimidation charges in Melody Ross caseFrom the Long Beach Press-Telegram – LONG BEACH – Two Wilson High School students on Wednesday denied charges that they tried to intimidate a witness in the murder of a classmate after the 2009 homecoming game.

The girls, who have not been identified because they are minors, are accused of trying to intimidate witnesses who testified on April 15 and 16 in the preliminary hearing for two local gang members accused of killing 16-year-old Melody Ross, a Wilson honor student, at the end of the high school’s homecoming game last October.

Police officer sentenced for 3 DUIsFrom the Orange County Register – WESTMINSTER – An Anaheim police officer was sentenced to 10 months in jail Wednesday after pleading guilty to three misdemeanor counts of driving under the influence of prescription drugs.

Kevin Noel Schlueter, 37, of Costa Mesa, must serve six months in a residential drug treatment facility as a condition of his sentence handed down by Superior Court Judge Michael Cassidy. He was also placed on five years of informal probation and ordered to attend a multiple-offender alcohol program.

Pomona middle school burglarized, computers and money stolenFrom the L.A. Daily News – POMONA – Authorities today were investigating a burglary at a Pomona middle school in which computer equipment and about $1,000 raised by students was taken, according to police and broadcast reports.

Police today sought an attempted kidnapping suspect who tried to kidnap a woman as
she walked to her car in an apartment complex parking lot in Reseda.

The kidnapping attempt occurred at 4:20 a.m. in the 17900 block of Sherman Way, according to police.

A man approached the woman from behind and covered her mouth with his left hand, according to an account from the victim related by a police officer.

As the man struggled with the suspect, he dropped a white T-shirt that he had been holding in his right hand. When he tried to pick up the shirt, the woman escaped and the man ran.

The suspect was described as a Latino in his early 20s between 5 ‘5 feet tall and 5’10 inches tall.

Police asked anyone with information to call Det. Ed Page or Det. John Doerbecker at 818-374-7700.

Anyone wishing to remain anonymous should call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (800-222-8477). Tipsters may also contact Crime Stoppers by texting to phone number 274637 (C-R-I-M-E-S on most keypads) with a cell phone. All text messages should begin with the letters “LAPD. Tips leading to an arrest can earn up to $1,000.

Three gang members have been arrested after an 18-year-old student was stabbed at R. Rex Parris High School in Palmdale earlier today, according to the Palmdale Sheriff’s Station.

The student had been sitting on a planter in front of the school, at 38801 Clock Tower Plaza Drive, when he was approached by three males at about 11:20 a.m., said Deputy Robbie Royster.

The student and men had a verbal altercation when one of the men stabbed him in the torso, Royster said. The student fell backwards and kicked at the man, who stabbed him two more times in the legs, Royster said. The suspects then fled on foot.

Sheriffs set up a containment area and the school was sent into lockdown as police searched for the suspects. The men were found in a car several blocks away at Carolside Avenue and Avenue P5, Royster said.

It was unclear what the relationship was between the student and the men.

The student was transported to a local hospital, where he is expected to recover from the non-life threatening wounds, Royster said.

No other injuries were reported.

Officials at the school declined to comment when reached by phone, citing the involvement of minors.

Anyone with more information is asked to contact Det. Richard O’Neal at 661-272-2400.
Anyone wishing to remain anonymous should call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (800-222-8477). Tipsters may also contact Crime Stoppers by texting to phone number 274637 (C-R-I-M-E-S on most keypads) with a cell phone. Tips leading to an arrest can earn up to $1,000.

A Glendale man was sentenced Wednesday to more than seven years in jail after he was convicted of heading a smuggling operation that snuck more than 370,000 cartons of cigarettes into California to avoid paying the state’s cigarette tax.

The cartons were purchased by Avedis Djeredjian, 41, and others through several fake businesses, but Djeredjian only bought enough California tax stamps from the state Board of Equalization for 2,040 cartons. The stamps are required by law to be placed on each individual carton to show that that taxes have been paid before they can be sold.